Many photographs contain handwritten information in addition to the image information. Often this handwritten information is highly useful, interesting, emotional, or has historic significance. In some cases the handwritten notation associated with the print can be more interesting or emotionally valuable than the image itself. In addition the handwritten notation provides a personal narrative context for the image. It is often desirable to make copies of these photographs to create replica prints. The front and back of loose photographic prints and photo album pages can be scanned to obtain digital records of images and handwritten notations which can appear on either surface of the photographic print. Additionally album pages can include individual photographic prints that have been mounted to a backing sheet page which is often used to write handwritten notations that are positioned relative to the mounted photographic print. Once these digital records are obtained they can be used to create new image products such as reprints, bound photo albums, postcards, greeting card, mugs, t-shirts, videos, movies, animations, slide shows and the like.
Existing document scanning devices such as the Kodak i1220 and i1440 can simultaneously scan both sides of a photograph conveniently providing content from each side in digital form. These scanners are capable of scanning large numbers of prints which enables users to scan large quantities of photographs which in turn creates a multitude of digital files. In addition flatbed scanners such as Kodak A4 Tethered Flatbed and copy stands equipped with digital cameras can also be used to capture digital records of photo album pages and large collages made up of multiple individual photographs and handwritten notations which have been mounted to a support sheet of page.
Prior Art techniques such as described by Beato et al in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20090046940A1 are related. Beato et al describe the existence of “consumer marks” on the non-image side of a print and is shown in FIG. 6B. It teaches the use of optical character recognition to create an annotation on the front side of the image shown in FIG. 7B. The method taught in Beato et al produces artificially rendered text in the image and does not preserve the original handwritten information. The most relevant example is presented in FIG. 7C and illustration of a panoramic image that consists of the front side and non-image (back) side of a photographic postcard. The non-image side is shown in its “raw” form. The need to determine the proper orientation of the handwritten information for this type of display is not disclosed in Beato et al. Other methods of displaying consumer marks are disclosed such as “picture-in-picture” and “see-through” but details of these methods are not provided. As with the panoramic display, this application does not describe a need to determine proper orientation or scaling of the handwritten information.
It is known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,901,245 and 6,711,291 that open spaces in digital images can be detected. Both patents disclose methods for determining regions of images that are suitable for the placement and overlay of other image content without obscuring more interesting regions of the image. U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,291 goes further to describe a method of placing human understandable items, such as handwritten information, to minimally obscure important content in the image. U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,291, does not address determining the proper orientation or size of the human understandable content.
Methods in the prior art lacking orientation, scaling and positioning produce practical embodiments that will produce displays of hard-copy media that have image side content obscured by improperly placed and sized handwritten information often in the wrong orientation.